To understand how black Americans are impacted by fatal police shootings in each state, we defined an “over-representation ratio”: the percentage of fatal police shootings in which a black American was killed divided by percentage of black Americans in a state. The number one determinant of over-representation in fatal police shootings is the percentage of eligible black Americans registered to vote.

WIRED/MAIMUNA SHAHNAZ MAJUMDER

I found a very interesting piece in Wired Magazine, demonstrating a link between police shootings and voter registration, written by an equally interesting person. I encourage you to read more about Maia Majumder and her article.

Maimuna (Maia) Majumder is an Engineering Systems PhD candidate at MIT and computational epidemiology research fellow at HealthMap. Before coming to MIT, she earned a Bachelors of Science in Engineering Science and a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Tufts University. Her research interests involve probabilistic modeling, Bayesian statistics, and “systems epidemiology” in the context of emerging infectious diseases. She also enjoys exploring novel techniques for data procurement, writing about data for the general public, and creating meaningful data visualizations. When taking a break from work, Maia moonlights as a jazz vocalist, budding chef, and primal wellness enthusiast who loves Bikram yoga, Zumba, & lifting heavy objects with her awesome husband, Imran Malek.

An Intriguing Link Between Police Shootings and Black Voter Registration

Since January 1, 2016, there have been 714 fatal police shootings in the United States. That comes to 79 deaths a month, 18 a week, and three a day. For context, the US recorded 43 cases of locally transmitted Zika virus and 25 deaths from West Nile in the same time frame.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Living Proof, and Olivo Labs have developed a new material that can temporarily protect and tighten skin and smooth wrinkles, according to an MIT News article.

Even better? The team plans to develop the material further for use in transdermal drug delivery and treatment of skin conditions, such as eczema and other types of dermatitis, and also adapt it to provide long-lasting ultraviolet protection.

El dÍa de los NiÑos/El dÍa de los Libros (Day of the Child/Day of the Book) is a celebration based on childhood and literacy that began in 1997. Borrowing from the traditional Mexican holiday “El dÍa de los NiÑos,” the American version expanded to include literacy when acclaimed author Pat Mora took up the cause in 1997. A year later, the U.S. Congress officially designated April 30 as “Day of the Child.”

Members from GCC’s MEChA Club will set up games to celebrate this event.

Cascade.Erode.Construct. is a video installation that abstractly explores the history of the iconic Hayden Flour Mill. The Mill’s proximity to water (the Salt River) is an integral part of its identity as a Tempe landmark. The movement and erosive power of water form the fundamental structure of the animation from which new forms are constructed. The visual artifacts that remain on the north wall of the Mill are isolated and reinvigorated by the projected light. The animation was created by using a digital image of the wall as the input for a variety of algorithmic processes. The installation repeats every ten minutes between 8:00 PM and 1:00 AM on the north wall of the Hayden Mill. Casey’s research was facilitated by John Southard and E. Hunter Hansen in the Tempe Historic Preservation Office and Jared Smith at the Tempe History Museum.

This project was funded through the City of Tempe Municipal Arts Fund with the support of the Tempe Municipal Arts Commission.

Thanks to Chaunda Fraulino and all of her hard work in making this happen every year. We have continually gotten better in this competition and I hope you all improve next year too.

Also thanks to all of you for doing your part and recycling, reducing, and reusing. This would not have been possible without an environmentally conscious student body and employees.

2016 RecycleMania Tournament

February 7 – April 2, 2016

Final Results

Glendale Community College (GCC) competed with 276 colleges and universities nationwide in the 2016 RecycleMania tournament from February 7 – April 2. The four Arizona participants included Arizona State University, Glendale Community College, and the University of Arizona. GCC reduced the amount of waste per person from 8.63 lbs. in 2015 to 7.61 lbs. in 2016 earning a 3rd place finish in the 2016 Waste Minimization competition.

The goal of waste minimization is to reduce overall waste (trash plus recyclables) through waste reduction activities such as the Zero Waste Program. As a direct result of our success in waste minimization, our placement in other categories is higher. The final results in all categories are listed below.

2016 RecycleMania Final Results

Grand Champion
103 out of 207Per Capita Classic
249 out of 269Gorilla
222 out of 276

Waste Minimization
3 out of 114

Corrugated Cardboard
93 out of 97

Our cumulative GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Reductions during the competition are 58 Metric Tons of CO2 Equivalent, or 11 cars off the road, or the energy consumption of 5 households.

About RecycleMania

This is GCC’s 6th year participating in the RecycleMania tournament. The tournament ran from February 7 – April 2, 2016. RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over an 8-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or has the highest recycling rate overall.

This event celebrates our ninth annual dumpster dive, with a presentation of this years dumpster dive results, followed by our guest speaker, Thomas Williams, Chief Sustainability Officer, Maricopa County Community College District.